How I Made My Victorian Sewing Bag Tutorial - Step 1

I'm going to do this in steps and then put it up as a tutorial... If I don't explain something well enough or you feel I have left out a step... please comment as we go along and  with your help it should end up being a useful tutorial...  I'm going to not only tell you how I did it but why I made some of the decisions I did along the way..

First some answers before you even asked the questions...  I thought it a lot before I began and here are the things I felt were important to me.

1.  It had to be practical.  I wanted something I could set on a park bench as well as toss into the car. The embellishments were going to have to be simple enough that they wouldn't be catching or snagging on things.

2. I wanted it to be large enough to carry my supplies and a project but not so large and heavy that I needed a wheeled cart to move it.. My favorite tote is 15"x15" so I chose those dimensions. (16"x16" to allow for seam allowances.

3.  My favorite tote has a pocket on the outside which I love but no pockets on the inside which I wanted...  side ones that would hold my smaller supplies and needle book and a zippered pocket which could hold a wallet when I carried just the sewing bag and not a purse.

4. Flap or no flap?? The deciding factor was travel...  It is just too easy when traveling (or shopping) for a hand to slip into an open tote and extract a wallet. 

5.  It absolute had to be beautiful as well as functional.  I want people to comment on it and ask about crazy quilting.

Since I wanted this to be as simple a construction project as possible I chose to do it in three simple pieces and really didn't need a pattern. 

There were reasons for this choice.  The main consideration was I wanted to do it in sections so the pieces were a  size that could be easily handled for handwork... A 16" square is not all that much larger than a usual CQ block.   Secondly I wanted to avoid bulky seams when possible and doing it in three pieces still  allowed for minimal seams plus workable sizes...  (Later as I move along in the tutorial I will talk about using a pattern.)

For just ease of construction I could have cut it in one piece with the flap attached but then I would have trying to manipulate a section 16 x 38" to do the handwork...  too large to be fun but certainly an option if you are making something on the order of a small handbag.

With these decisions out of the way the next installment will be: "Step 2 -Avoiding Bulky Seams."